Brief Expressive Writing Improves Social Performance in College Students With Mild Social Anxiety

Dados Bibliográficos

ID21376397
AutoresYan Li (0000-0001-6650-7726, School of Education and Psychological Science Sichuan University of Science & Engineering Zigong China), Zhiwei Liu (0000-0003-4241-0326, School of Education and Psychological Science Sichuan University of Science & Engineering Zigong China, autor correspondente)
Ano2025
Volume62
Fascículo3
Páginas941-948
Data de publicação2025-03-01
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoPsychology in the Schools (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0033-3085 • E-ISSN: 1520-6807
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/pits.23367
OpenAlexW4405210268
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas61

Social anxiety is a prevalent issue among college students, often leading to poor academic and psychosocial adjustment. Expressive writing has shown promise as a brief, cost‐effective intervention for improving mental and physical health. This study investigated the effects of a 15‐min expressive writing session on the social performance of mildly socially anxious college students. Participants ( N = 128) were randomly assigned to write expressively about social anxieties or do a control writing task. Before and after, they introduced themselves while being audio recorded. Results demonstrated that expressive writing significantly increased the number of words spoken, time spent speaking, speech rate, and use of positive emotion words during the social interaction, compared to the control condition. However, no significant effects were found for negative emotion word use or speech volume. Additionally, no significant relationship was observed between the number of words written and social performance measures. These findings suggest that even brief expressive writing interventions can improve some aspects of social performance in mildly socially anxious college students. The lack of association between writing length and social performance outcomes highlights the potential effectiveness of short writing exercises, which is particularly relevant for school‐based applications where time and resources are often limited. This study provides initial evidence for the use of brief expressive writing as a scalable, practical intervention to improve social functioning and promote adjustment among socially anxious students in educational settings

Anxiety · Developmental psychology · Intervention (counseling) · Psychological intervention · Psychosocial · Psychotherapist · Session (web analytics) · Shyness · Social anxiety · Social skills · Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes · Digital Mental Health Interventions · Mental Health via Writing · Psychology · Social Psychology